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INTRODUCTION Traditionally, Taiwanese aborigines were a minority, were isolated, and were self‑sufficient. Over the past few hundred years, the aboriginal Taiwanese population encountered waves of colonial domination, which resulted in the breaking down of their economic, cultural, and social life. Followed by economic development and lack of concern about aborigines’ daily life from Taiwan’s academic communities, aborigines had difficulty in obtaining employment (Chi 2005). Therefore, the unemployment of aborigines became an important issue to the government of Taiwan. According to the Council of Indigenous Peoples, Executive Yuan, R.O.C., the unemployment rate for aborigines was 5.76%, which was higher than non‑aborigines 4.41% (2004). The education level of aborigines attending associate degree programs or above was 12% compared to non‑aborigines at 27%. The aboriginal people comprise approximately 2% of the total population in Taiwan. Due to long term passive interaction with an external environment, mal‑adaptation, and lack of future plans, aboriginal students felt frustrated with their self‑integration and self‑development. There was less desire and willingness to learn. There was lower academic achievement, which led to a higher dropout rate, lower advancement to higher education, lower adaptation ability, and lower competition ability. This weakness was substantial in forming a vicious circle of becoming a disadvantaged minority. In view of aborigines as a disadvantaged minority, the Ministry of Education, R.O.C. authorised a private nursing college for females only to undertake a study on female aboriginal adolescent education in order to promote their education level and employability. Since 1994, this focused aboriginal school has held a special entrance examination independently and recruited 100 to 400 female aboriginal students from various remote areas for a five‑year junior nursing program. All tuition fees, miscellaneous fees, and living expenses were funded by the chairman of the school. RESEARCH PAPER Hospital nursing managers reported aboriginal nursing graduates had difficulty in clinical performance and their turnover rate was higher than non‑aboriginal nursing graduates. In order to retain these aboriginal nursing graduates and avoid educational resource waste, it is important to have a better understanding about these aboriginal nursing students adaptation ability during their first three months of employment. Figure 1: Technological and vocational system in Taiwan Four-year college/university Three-year vocational high school (abolished in 2005) LITERATURE REVIEW Two-year college/university Two-year junior college Five year junior college Nursing education is often described as idealistic. When a new graduate enters a health care institution, he or she, is faced with a situation in which the idealised role is in conflict with the working role of professional nurses. The new graduate experiences frustration when unable to fulfil personal and organisational practice expectations. The result is, ‘reality shock’! Hospital accreditation statistics from the Department of Health in Taiwan revealed that the average turnover rate of nurses in Taiwan was 15%. Some hospitals’ turnover rates were as high as 40% (Department of Health 1992). There have been no further statistics released by the Taiwanese government since 1992. The reasons for nurses leaving the workforce were work pressure, mal‑adaptation, being unable to work night shift, and changing shifts too often (Chen et al 2006; Chen et al 2005; Chen et al 2000; Wang 1997; Yin 1991). There were few studies on recruitment and retention of minority nursing students and none about their employment adaptation (Abdur‑Rahman and Gaines 1999; Campbell and Davis 1996; Fletcher et al 2003; McManemy 2002; Young et al 1994). Therefore, it is important to understand aboriginal nursing graduates’ employment status. AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING Volume 28 Number 3 23
Learning Attitude of Aboriginal Students Poor academic performance, especially by Taiwanese aboriginal students, is often attributed to the lack of a mainstream cultural experience or poor socioeconomic status. Aboriginal students had a more apparent spirit of adventure and curiosity, but were weak in imagination (Hu and Lu 2005). According to Liao’s study (1999), only one‑tenth of aboriginal nursing students handled schoolwork with ease. The other nine‑tenths of aboriginal nursing students felt different levels of stress from schoolwork. Even though the adaptation ability of life in aboriginal students was higher than non‑aboriginal students, they had poorer study habits than non‑aboriginal students and lacked motivation to learn (Hsu and Yang 2009; Lee 1999). Lack of confidence and learning difficulties were other issues for aboriginal students (Chi 2000; Wu 1994). Due to cultural differences, language obstacles, and different thinking processes, learning became more difficult among aborigines (Tsai 1996). They are more active and like dynamic activities. So it was difficult for them to sit down and study. They had less motivation or even no interest in studying (Huang 2000). Even though aboriginal students’ performance was poorer than non‑aboriginal students, their intelligence was not less. The difference was in their thinking process (Lee 1999). Therefore, it is important for teachers to know aboriginal students’ characteristics and to design different teaching methods for these students. There were some successful cases. According to Yang’s study (2001), though the educational experience of five female aboriginal students in Sunrise Teacher’s College had suffered racial discrimination from teachers and peer groups in schools, positive school achievement, and family support provided them the power continue their study. School achievement motivated their learning and self‑confidence. Adaptation Ability of Aboriginal Students When aboriginal adolescents who lived family life in a tribe enter into an educational system led by ordinary Chinese, they endured the pressure of combining two different cultures. Under a different value system, they had to adjust their learning attitudes, thinking processes, and behaviours in order to adapt the role RESEARCH PAPER expectations from mainstream culture (Huang 2000). Due to differences in life style and background, aboriginal students, as minorities, felt pressure when facing non‑aboriginal students and teachers (Hong 2000). In order to assess the differences of psychiatric symptoms and unhealthy life styles between aboriginal and non‑aboriginal adolescents, Li and Chang (1999) surveyed 27 classes of high school students from nine high schools in Eastern Taiwan. The results revealed that psychiatric symptoms were more common among non‑aboriginal students, with depressive‑anxiety being the most prominent symptom. Daily life stress was the major issue. Unhealthy behaviours were more common in aborigines such as smoking, betel nut chewing, and consumption of wine. These were also influencingfactorsforaboriginalstudents’adaptation to mainstream culture. Therefore, different interventions should be used for adolescents of different ethnic groups. Helping non‑aboriginal adolescents cope with stress and preventing an unhealthy lifestyle among aboriginal adolescents should be considered equally important. Even though aboriginal students had better life adaptation abilities than non‑aboriginal students, they lacked good reading habits and had poor motivation to learn. They were influenced by peers more easily, reacted more emotionally, and were much quicker to behave irrationally. There were no significant differences in interpersonal relationships and learning adaptations between aboriginal students and non‑aboriginal students (Lee 1999). When getting along with non‑aboriginal students, these aboriginal students showed insufficient self‑confidence. Only one tenth of aboriginal college students could manage schoolwork with ease and the other nine tenths felt different degrees of pressure (Liao et al 1999). Clinical Performance of Aboriginal Nursing Students The Chen, Shih and Yu’s (2000) study showed that aboriginal nursing students’ self‑evaluation was lower than non‑aboriginal nursing students’ before AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ADVANCED NURSING Volume 28 Number 3 24
Page 1 and 2: March ‑ May 2011 Volume 28 Number
Page 3 and 4: AJAN australian journal of advanced
Page 5 and 6: Peter Massey, RN, GradCertPublicHlt
Page 7 and 8: INTRODUCTION The ‘Team Leader Mod
Page 9 and 10: welcoming students, introducing the
Page 11 and 12: their view and that of their staff
Page 13 and 14: a change in staff perception of the
Page 15 and 16: RESEARCH PAPER Nursing and midwifer
Page 17 and 18: esearch (Traynor et al 2001). Endog
Page 19 and 20: Table 3: Contribution to health car
Page 21 and 22: Despite organisational barriers, th
Page 23: RESEARCH PAPER The adaptation of pr
Page 27 and 28: FINDINGS A form was mailed to 238 a
Page 29 and 30: Influence of Quality of Rest and Li
Page 31 and 32: Preferred models of cardiac rehabil
Page 33 and 34: choice and short answer questions,
Page 35 and 36: preferred a group program (25% of m
Page 37 and 38: Clark, A., Hartling, L., Vandermeer
Page 39 and 40: INTRODUCTION Assessing quality of c
Page 41 and 42: will be monitored over time, but pr
Page 43 and 44: The revised CCI Tool: the ResCareQA
Page 45 and 46: Mukamel, D.B., and Spector, W.D. 20
Page 47 and 48: Care Environment 18. Restraints a.
Page 49 and 50: INTRODUCTION / RATIONALE Nurses are
Page 51 and 52: ended questions were included to pr
Page 53 and 54: The field exercise appeared to chan
Page 55 and 56: Premenstrual syndrome and managemen
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Page 59 and 60: the women, symptoms of depression i
Page 61 and 62: LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY Exclusion
Page 63 and 64: INTRODUCTION Psychosocial care is i
Page 65 and 66: fail or avoid addressing, assessing
Page 67 and 68: taught not to get emotionally invol

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